America's choice

Fascism or democracy lite?

These are strange times. Very strange. Looking back at the history I have lived though, I should have seen this circus coming.

I immigrated to this country from Haiti in 1983. Back then, Reagan was the President. My parents loved him, so 12-year-old me thought he was a super duper President. 53-year-old me knows that it was Reagan who enabled the political conditions we face today. Reagan was the original MAGA. Drumpf stole that idea and corrupted it even further.

Reagan set the stage. How?

Without exception, nothing commanded President Reagan's attention more than Russia. There were seemingly no lengths he wouldn't go to in the name of making sure Russia failed at every damn thing they tried in the '80s. He spent millions of dollars in taxpayer money supporting any and every effort to fight communism (or anything that sort of resembled it) anywhere in the world it happened to rear its head. It was called the "Reagan Doctrine," and it explains not only our economy-wrecking obsession with shooting Russian missiles out of the sky, but also our multiple attempts to interfere in the politics of Central America at the time.

• Iran-Contra - selling arms for hostages and to fund toppling a foreign government. All illegally.

• Reaganomics - giving the obscenely wealthy tax cuts so they can “create more jobs.” That’s not how economics work. Tanked the economy.

• Labor Unions - destroying the right of workers to strike, destroying their bargaining power.

• AIDs epidemic - Reagan ignored it. Pretended it wasn’t happening. Shrugged it off. By doing so, he made the “gay disease” stigma far worse.

• Middle East - US interventions in Afghanistan and other Islamic countries under Reagan created the conditions for terrorism and terrorist leaders like Osama bin Laden to emerge and grow.

• Mental health - Reagan’s approach to mental health issues was basically the same as his approach to AIDs: ignore it. Even worse, slash budgets for treating people with mental illnesses. This was the catalyst for today’s homelessness crisis.

Decades passed, and Reagan’s example of making everything in society worse for everyone except the disgustingly rich and powerful was copied by Republicans everywhere. This legacy of bumbling idiocy, intentional ignorance, and extreme selfishness leads us directly to today.

Today, we face a choice between a lunatic criminal fascist leading a cult or a party that supports the genocide in Israel and offers a version of what I will call Democracy Lite. No other viable options are on the table, and that is intentional.

The party of insanity and the party of mediocrity are keeping all the power for themselves while hundreds of millions of Americans exist hand to mouth and paycheck to paycheck. The health care system and social safety networks are broken. The culture is violent and broken. I can barely imagine what it is like to grow up in conditions so bad most young adults cannot buy a home and won’t ever be able to. In a time when conspiracy thinking is rampant and critical thinking is hiding for fear of being lynched by militias composed of outraged morons who have no idea they are programmed pawns, it is a miracle that more people do not lose their marbles and try to shoot or stab Reagan’s MAGA spawn Orangeman.

If someone succeeded, I fear a more competent replacement would step out of the shadows. I weep for the future, but I will be casting my vote for democracy lite. I wish I had faith it will save us from our own shortcomings.

We can do so much better. We must.

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Sources:

https://www.cracked.com/blog/6-objective-reasons-ronald-reagan-was-our-worst-president

https://www.propublica.org/article/walz-police-reform-emails-after-george-floyd-daunte-wright-killings